Voltages in the range of 20 kV can produce a spark between two metal electrodes even upto a distance of 5 mm in air. Certain piezo-electronic ceramics with impulsive mechanical force, can produce such high voltages. Although their current capacity is very small, the energy is sufficient to ignite most of the commercial combustible gases. By using ceramic transducer in ignitors, the size of the ignitor can be substantially reduced, which is an important factor for their use in say, gas heaters, ovens, welding and soldering equipments and even for pocket cigarette lighters. In this article, some important design criteria for the ceramic transducer for spark generation, are given.
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